Chapter 1 - Time of the Past (Part 3)

Luke was awoken by a yell that came from the front. As he opened my eyes, there stood a disappointed lady staring straight back at him. He knew that he had been sleeping in class earlier and was now in deep trouble. The teacher placed her notes on the table with force and paced towards him. He had to hold his laughter after seeing the plum teacher using her effort to get to his table near the window.

“Meet me after school for detention,” She spoke sternly.

As she spun around, her curly hair swayed, she headed towards the blackboard to continue her teaching. Beside him were few students giggling and off with a mind of their own. He opened his textbook and flipped to any page before closing it back. Looking out of the window to the clear blue sky, he pondered onto the same question that had been bothering him.

“The dreams keep repeating… it felt so real,” he thought.

“Headache…”

He took in a deep breath and stared up into the ceiling. He had no interest in the lesson, and usually wondering off to his own fantasies most of the time. School had ended, students left their classrooms in a hurry and some were chatting along the corridors. Luke packed his bag with the least effort before carrying it at his back.

“Bye Luke!” a voice shouted from the other side of the classroom.

He paid no attention to it and continued to walk out. Taking each step with momentum, he hurried down the staircase to ground floor and headed towards the school gates. Rich students went home by horse carriages that would fetch them to and fro from school while others had parents waited for them at the school gates. Luke walked out of the gate with his head down, hoping no one would notice him. He did not want people to misunderstand him without knowing about his hidden ability. Ever since he was young, he was able to see spirits while others could not. Sometimes mistaking spirits for humans, he would be made fun of by people around him. In contrast to his ability to being clairvoyant but some of the premonitions he foretold would be inaccurate.

“Detention…I forgot!” he thought.

He frantically turned back and ran back into the school bringing a gust of wind from behind him. Suddenly, there was a carriage headed in his direction. Luke stood rooted to the ground with his eyes opened wide. Some people called out for him to move away but he was stunned and his ears were shut. The coachman tried to pull back the carriage but he knew it would not stop in time. The gust of wind came again, this time he felt a slight push from behind. A cold chill went through the back of his spine. He fell towards the side, away from the carriage’s path. He managed to get away from a near death experience. Few moments later, the carriage came to a halt in a distance and the coachman came down, just to see that Luke had disappeared. He was already hiding behind the pillar near the foyer because he was afraid that complication would go on further and running away from it seemed the best way.

“Excuse me,” a faint voice came from beside him.

He turned to see that no one was around him. Heaving a sigh of relief, he was thankful that nobody had bothered him. He shook his head and turned back to the staircase. In a matter of minutes, he reached the detention room and waited for the arrival of the plum teacher. The room had poor taste of worn out wallpaper, the floor looked extremely dirty and most of the tables were badly damaged. After choosing a table that was in the best shape, he treaded towards and stared down at it. The table was at the end of the classroom away from the teacher’s table. Soon later, he placed his bag beside him on the floor and pulled in his chair to sit down.
Finally the plum teacher strolled in, carrying a stack of worksheets with her stationery at the top. As she put down the papers, a loud thump came after. She started scratching her back with her long polished nails, producing an irritating shrill.

“You’ll leave by an hour’s time” she murmured.

She sat on the teacher’s chair and moved around to make it more comfortable. Luke slipped his hand in his bag pulling out drawing materials and arranged it on the table. He loved drawing and would do so when he had any free time. Suddenly, he could feel a presence. A female about his age was sitting at the other corner of the classroom. She had a charm with smudged writings on her forehead and it was emitting a weird aura. The girl just stood up and walked towards the plum teacher and went fading through the wall behind her.

“Erm…” Luke spoke.

The teacher stared straight at him and put her finger on her lips, indicating that he should keep quiet while in detention. He lowered his head, snatched up his pencil and started drawing symbols found in the current book he read.
Time passed quickly, the plum teacher closed her thick book novel and called for him to come forward. When he was about to stand up a dizzy spell came over him. He began to see a vast mass of water with a thick fog covering and several whisperings from afar. Suddenly, the whisperings turned into screams and it got louder and louder followed by the sound of gushing rough water.

“LUKE!” the plum teacher yelled.